Internalized Discrimination

In recent history massive wars, resulting in countless lives lost, have been waged simply over not belonging to the ‘right’ or ‘our’ race. Most people would agree the concept of disliking someone simply because they look different and belong to another race, is pure ignorance. To say that because a person has dark skin that they will respond or behave in a certain manner is again ignorant.

The Kids at Ruth’s school truly didn’t like her just because she was Jewish. In high school, Ruth was cast as an ensemble dancer for a school musical, but due to the other students saying they didn’t want to have to dance next to a Jew, Ruth dropped out. (McBride P.105)

Explain how institutional racism could result in internalized oppression for members of marginalized populations. Provide examples relevant to a specific minority group, based on the chapters you selected.

I never knew that there was a big social differentiation between who hung out with who dependent upon race. To be very blunt, the ratio of black to white people in my school was about 4:1. I was a very quiet girl especially during my sixth grade year. In seventh grade I began to open up more, but this caused frequent altercations. As people began to know my name I recruited names such as “preppy” and “white girl”. I found the phrase “white girl” to be ironic considering the fact that I am fully Hispanic. When I corrected anyone who believed I was white, I would often get “I didn't know you were mexican, you look like you’re white!”. These accusations and the shocked looks on the faces of those who knew the truth never disappeared. Being a Senior in High-School and knowing most of my fellow classmates, I still frequently get the same comments or faces of those who have never thought twice about my race because I “look white”or I “act white”. Through the years of receiving comments like this, I've come to the realization that these judgements of people based upon their appearance happen all of the time. I will admit to doing this myself and giving the same comments as I have gotten. These racial judgements don't just come with African American or Caucasian

People in dominant groups often perpetuate discrimination because it provides them separation and privilege. It is something that people have always done in order to exploit another group for personal gain. However; racism is a much newer concept that was built off that idea. It allowed groups of people to conquer one another, enslave them, take their territory, and oppress them. Now, to answer your question, the way to change racism is to be an ally and identify one's own privilege. Being an ally gives individuals the power to spread awareness and to educate them on the social construction of racism. These passionate people are the heartbeat for the movement to end racism. And no, simply not identifying ones race is not enough. Color blindness

Not only was I seen as lesser because I was black, but my darker than most skin left me vulnerable to the torment of others. Throughout high school, everywhere I would look; social media, television, magazines, and film, I would see dark-skin women being represented as lesser beings. In entertainment we were always the characters that were aggressive, high-tempered, “ghetto”, sassy, uneducated, ugly, and the list goes on whereas light-skin women were put on a pedestal. It made it seem that if you weren’t mixed, you were automatically not worth anyones time or effort. The representation of dark-skin women presents us in a permanently negative light and destroys the self esteem of thousands of young girls. When I was young, I always told by my classmates “you would be pretty if you weren’t so dark.” This was extremely detrimental to my self confidence as a young girl and led to the festering of insecurities I still haven’t completely recovered from today. As a society, we need to work towards presenting dark-skin and light-skin women in a more equal

Growing up as a kid, I was not concerned about the complexion of my skin, let alone the complexion of my family and friends. In my family, some members have really fair colored skin that would make you question if they’re white, while others are a very dark “black” complexion. So once I got in high school when Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites became popular my eyes started to open to a new form of ignorance. If you’re active on social media then you’ve definitely seen tweets and Facebook statuses referring to the “Team Light Skin vs. Team Dark Skin” controversy in the black community, especially pertaining to and among females. Most comments are on the lines of “Light skin is the best skin”, “Oh you’re cute for a dark skin girl”, or “She’s light skin, so she has to be stuck up”. The black community refers to the two skin tones as if they’re two different races and one is better than the other. To sum up this behavior in one word, I would have to use colorism. Colorism is defined as prejudice or discrimination based on the relative lightness or darkness of the skin; which usually occurs within one’s own ethnic group (Dark Girls 2012). If a female is light skinned or of lighter skin complexion, she’s seen as prettier and conceited. On the other hand, a dark-skinned female is seen as being ugly, dirty and probably lacks self-respect. But in the eyes of different ethnic groups, especially Caucasians, we are all seen as Black or African-American.

There is always going to be a certain level of misunderstanding or miscommunication between employees in the workplace. But when the ugly specter of prejudice appears in the workplace, based on gender, ethnicity, cultural differences, religion or skin color, it can cause serious problems and hurtful feelings. This paper offers scholarly information on prejudice in the workplace and relates as to how prejudice can be reduced.

As a young child I knew that racism existed but not to the extent that I understand now. I would get made fun of for being “extremely black” in elementary school despite it being a majority black school. As I grew older the name calling didn 't stop, I would find people of different races, including my own commenting in shock and surprise about how dark I am. “Damn she 's dark” one black classmate would snicker as I walked down the hallway. It never bothered me, I embraced my skin and its shade because I knew I was more than a color. But in America something as minor as your skin tone is one of the most defining factors in who you are or how you 're expected to be, shade dominates how others view you.

The article “Internalized Racial Oppression” by Karen Pyke addresses the undiscussed existence of internalized racism. In doing so, she also talks about the idea of individual resistance and how it becomes problematic, in some ways even helping to reinforce notions of the white racist power structure. The article challenges the common, well-appreciated narratives that are presented about resisting racism as an individualistic venture. The idea of internalized racism is not studied or discussed because the focus was shifted to individual experience and how that impacted someone personally.

Right now in America, we are living in an era where discrimination is no longer a growing matter, yet, we cannot reassure ourselves with the term “post-racial society, where…racism no longer exists [or] almost disappeared in many minority communities.”

Intro: Little Things: When Prejudice is Unintentional is an ABC News Program covering the concept of prejudice in the new millennium.

For some reason though, my friend would always choose the light-skinned girls. Now, this would not be a problem because everyone (including myself) has a preference, but what made this extremely unsettling is what they would say when dark-skinned girls would walked pass. “She’s too dark”, “She would not look right next to me”, or “She’s really ugly” were the comment that were said. This would always confuse the hell out of me because there was nothing wrong with these girls; in fact, some were cute. The only thing that differed from these girls and the ones they picked out was that their skin color. This was around ten years ago (when I was twelve), and nothing changed since then. For some reason dark-skinned black women are always treated s some kind of hideous creature undeserving of respect or love. Their demeanor and the atmosphere surrounding them is judge by their skin color. From the days of negritude, to the brown paper bag, to the “savage dark-skinned woman”, there seems to be this agenda to tear down the image of the dark-skinned black woman. There is this image of dark-skinned black women being this aggressive, attitude fuel women always looking to “start up something”, while light-skinned women are placed on this pedestal of beauty and as a trophy to many black men; more submissive and soft-spoken than dark-skinned women. A couple years ago, my mother told me of a time her and her sister went to a blockbuster to get movies. When my mother went up to the register to complete her transaction, the clerk (who was black) ignored her and instead rung up the thing my aunt had instead. Even though my mother was the register first, she was overlooked for my aunt because she was dark-skinned and my aunt was light-skinned. Actions like this is what hurt our people the most, not the assault we face at the hands of white

Unfortunately discrimination is a part of every day life all around the world. The book The Boy in the Striped Pajamas proves that discrimination is not an innate behavior; rather it is a learned behavior. This means that when a child is born, he or she does not automatically discriminate against someone that is different from them. Children that are first born learning to walk and talk think everyone and everything else are equal. The term discrimination is a behavior that is acquired elsewhere after birth. To help put a stop to discrimination people need to research and receive more knowledge to prevent this from happening any longer. There are many different questions that come to mind while reading this book. These questions can range anywhere from how to stop discrimination to why did Hitler do the things he did. Even though all of these questions come to mind, only a few have the ability of being answered. The reason these questions cannot be answered is because there is no way of knowing why people do the things they do, because there is no technology advanced enough to read minds.

Discrimination is an interesting concept- a double-edged sword. Having discriminating taste is a good thing, liking things indiscriminately is not. You should be able to decide which type of art you enjoy, what type of food, or music, but you should not be indiscriminate when sharing your thoughts online. The latter only opens you up to ridicule. We are all discriminated against constantly, in every way, every day, by sex, height and weight, color, religion and so many other things that are unconsciously noticed. The question is; when is discrimination bad, or even immoral, and how do we combat that?